Calvin Ayre – James Packer, boss of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd., has asked his country’s government to revise their tourist visa policies to make it easier for Chinese high rollers to visit his casinos. Packer told the Herald Sun that it was “hypocritical” for the government to maintain visa requirements that make it harder for wealthy Chinese to enter the country than wealthy Americans. Packer, who believes the rising clout of Chinese consumers will “profoundly aspect every aspect of our economy,” said it was “stupid” that “visa applications are done in English, not Mandarin.” Packer also complained that…

iGaming Business – The New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) experienced growth in betting and gaming turnover during the six months to January 31, 2014, despite having described the first half of the year as “challenging” The national bookmaker recorded turnover of NZ$1.1 billion (€654.2 million/$896.8 million) for the first-half of the year, an increase of 2% on the NZ$1 billion achieved in corresponding period last year. Total income also increased from NZ$157.8 million in the previous year to NZ$159.9 million in the latest period. However, the board did suffer a slight drop in net profit before distributions, which fell from…

Washington Times – A key lawmaker has pulled the plug on a legislative plan to broaden gambling in Florida during this year’s session, but supporters promise to revive the effort next year. The surprise move was announced in the middle of a Senate budget discussion by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, who had led the discussion to implement more gambling in the state, opening it up to outside interests, including Las Vegas-style casinos in South Florida, as well as to establish a gaming commission to oversee the sector in the state. Richter cited the ongoing negotiations between Gov. Rick Scott and…

iGaming Business – Gaming solutions provider Scientific Games has signed an extension to its contract with the Delaware State Lottery to continue supplying lottery and central monitoring systems. The new three-year deal will begin in February 2015. Under the agreement, Scientific Games will continue to provide a range of services and support for draw-based lottery, keno, video lottery games and instant game pass-through transactions. The extension also calls for the installation of a minimum of 450 WMS multi-game video lottery terminals (VLTs) at charitable gaming organisations throughout the US state of Delaware. The VLTS will be monitored and controlled by…

The Sydney Morning Herald – One-armed bandits are blamed for robbing Sydney of its live music scene, but pokies may be the saviour of the industry under a plan adopted by the City of Sydney. The council will lobby the state government to support the live music industry using money from gaming revenue. It is one of 57 recommendations in the City of Sydney’s Live Music Taskforce’s final action plan that were unanimously adopted at a meeting of councillors on Monday. A City of Sydney spokeswoman said a similar program in South Australia had become a valuable resource supporting live…

The Argus – Sussex gamblers are estimated to have wagered nearly £1 billion on virtual gaming machines dubbed the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’ last year. The controversial high-stake betting shop machines, on which punters can spend £100 every 20 seconds on games like virtual roulette, have been described as dangerously addictive and accounted for around half of all highstreet bookmakers’ profits last year. Nearly £280 million was gambled on the machines in Brighton and Hove alone in 2013, according to figures from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling. Of that, nearly £10 million was lost by punters and across the county…